"Only if your music catalog has a beat to back it, these Skullcandy headphones can deliver outstanding performance."
For
Deep bass
Attractive price
Decent sound
Against
Hit or miss bass driver
Cups lack isolating seal
Limited inline controls
At $99 (£89.99, AU$115), the Skullcandy Crusher headphones
are all about that bass. With bass drivers so strong they actually
vibrate, the Crusher lathers a fun (but divisive), thick, gooey coat of
bass to every track that's pushed through its cans. With a
AA battery-fueled amplifier powering two separate drivers, (one for
bass, the other handles the rest of the sound) the Crusher provides a
captivating, authentic concert-quality experience at its best.
Unfortunately, the quality of the performance doesn't span the spectrum
of popular music with grace.
Design
The
Skullcandy Crusher nails it as a no-frills set of headphones. The
all-plastic build doesn't inspire, but my all-black review unit boasts a
minimalistic design that matches its price. Aside from a few subtle
touches of chrome, there isn't much flair here, and I'm perfectly
content with that. It
wouldn't be Skullcandy if there weren't an eclectic selection of colors
and styles available for the Crusher. From foliage-full camouflage, to
silver snakeskin, to a funky pixelated style, there's a look for nigh
every kind of music fan. Regardless of the style you
prefer, the thick plastic head band spanning from one headphone to the
other has a strip of cushion on its underside that allowed for
adequately comfortable use on my rather large noggin for quite a long
time. Stylistically,
the headphone ear cups look great and are each about the size of a
bulky computer mouse. They're lined on the inside with padding that
sports a dual purpose: comfort and passive noise isolation, when you're
perfectly still.
Performance
The unique design of
the Crusher encourages inclusion – open to everyone despite their
differences in taste. But a bit of a different message comes across with
these cans' picky sound performance. Without a AA
battery inserted, the standard REX40 drivers inside take their best
crack at doing you proud. As a fallback, they do a decent job. But
without the powerful Sensation55 bass drivers activated, all that the
headphones can deliver is a lackluster amount of bass with mids and
highs that sound muddled. Sorry, REX. For
bass that you can feel (literally), insert the battery and flip on the
Bass Sensation Adjustment slider. The driver works by scooping up sounds
that fall underneath a certain frequency level and blasting them out.
It works a lot of the time, adding the punchy bass in all the right
places. But for just many times as it worked, it didn't. A
Band of Gypsys's live album sounds incredible front-to-back with the
bass boosted, but didn't overblow the masterful prowess provided by
Billy Cox and Buddy Miles. Hip-hop, funk, jazz and anything with a
clearly defined beat or well-layered instrumentation also sounded
amazing. Modern rock music, like The National, The
Strokes, or other types music with unorthodox studio production tended
to fool the bass driver, leaving parts of songs sounding inappropriately
flooded with, or hauntingly void of bass. A balance can be found using
the slider, if you're patient enough. Adjusting the bass by a smidge
usually solved most issues that I encountered.
We liked
The
Skullcandy Crusher headphones are a good value for those looking into
bass-heavy audio options. When the bass is there, these cans enliven
concert recordings and gives music with a strong beat an extra thump. I
also deeply appreciate that the Bass Sensation Adjustment slider isn't
an all-or-nothing ultimatum. Being able to tweak the bass on the fly for
each recording artist kept me on board with the Crushers.
We disliked
The
bass is strong with this one but sometimes, the Sensation55 driver
doesn't know when or when not to provide its thick charm to my jams. The
feature is guaranteed to work well with jazz, hip-hop or pop, but most
other music genres will be mangled and misrepresented. The
limited range of motion of the cups inhibited an isolating seal around
my ears. Pockets of outside noise found their way into my ear as I moved
my head around. The inline controls only contain a
Play/Pause button and a microphone. It's nice to have those functions,
but controls for adjusting volume would have been welcome.
Final verdict
These
headphones are great for more intense listeners that need a strong beat
to get them through their activities or for the casual listener who
enjoys a little more of a jolt injected into their music catalog. Sometimes
great, sometimes bad, at $99 (£89.99), the Skullcandy Crusher set is a
reliably decent experience. Get these if you need a set of on-the-go
headphones that don't require TLC and pump out extreme bass. If you like
the price point, check out the AKG Y50, another over-the-ear option that delivers a more balanced sound.
